Utility bills
Utility bills commonly refer to the gas, water, and electricity bills.

Reasons for a high electricity bill


1. Light bulbs and other electrical appliances are not energy efficient. There is need to upgrade to appliances to energy efficient models. When purchasing new electrical appliances consider purchasing appliances with the Energy Star logo. The energy star logo indicates appliances that use lesser energy.
Upgrade the light bulb to LED lights since they use lesser energy, 80-90 % less compared to the traditional incandescent bulbs.
2. Poor insulation. There is need to insulate the house properly by replacing old doors and windows with well fitting ones. Poor insulation makes one spend more money on heating and cooling bills.
3. Extreme weather conditions lead to Higher electricity bills. Since we don’t have the power to control weather conditions, we may use a few tricks to control the electricity bill. Lower your thermostat by one degree during winter this could save up to 5%, raise your thermostat during summer by one degree, this will save up to 3% of your electricity bill.
4. Having my devices in standby mode. Devices such as playing stations and laptops should be turned off instead of having them in standby mode. During standby, mode devices are consuming more power since they are performing tasks such as updating and downloading contents. To lower utility bill you need to switch off devices that are not in use, switch them on only when you want to use them. A desktop computer draws 21.13 watts when it is in sleep mode when it is turned off it will use only 2.84 watts.

Reasons leading to high water bill
1. Running or leaking toilets. The average water used in a toilet is 26.7% of the total water in an American house. This makes the toilet the biggest water consumer in the house. A leaking or a running toilet can use a total of 200 gallons of water in a day and 1,400 gallons of water in a week. There are two ways to check if your toilet is leaking, the dry test and the sound check.
Dry check. Pour some food color or a dye tablet in the toilet tank, wait for around 15 to 20 minutes and check toilet bowl for some dye stains. If you spot some dye this means that your toilet is leaking.
The sound check. If you walk to your toilet and hear a hissing sound this definitely means that the toilet is leaking.

2. Bad habits of using water. Using a top loading laundry machine which consumes 200% of more water compared to the modern front loading laundry machine.
> Loading the washing machine with half or quarter loads instead of waiting for a full laundry load.
> Having a long and unnecessary shower. Keeping the shower short can result in saving up to 1,000 gallons of water monthly.
> Thawing meat and frozen foods using water instead of taking them out of the freezer earlier.
> Using running water to wash the dishes, this consumes up to 5 times more water compared to using a dishwasher.
> Keeping the water running while shaving and brushing the teeth.

Consuming water and electricity properly will lower the bills significantly. Limit water and electricity consumption to save more. If you notice a leakage in the pipes or the toilet, call a plumber for assistance.

 

For more information on high utility bills, contact Vinny’s Jersey Plumbing, located in Wayne, New Jersey.  We also service other towns in New Jersey, such as East Hanover, Cedar Grove and West Orange.